More teens are reaching for mango and strawberry-flavored marijuana vapes since 2021, a recent University of Michigan study finds. Simultaneously, teen drug use hit a three-year low.
The study used data from the national Monitoring the Future study, which surveyed U.S. students between 8th and 12th grade between 2021 and 2024.
Cannabis use can have adverse effects on the brain, the study also notes.
Robert Miech, the principal investigator at U-M’s Institute for Social Research, found that among eighth graders who used marijuana in the past year, about 10% more started vaping it. Among 12th graders, that number jumped from 58 to 67 percent.
Overall cannabis use among teens dropped, Miech said. That’s in line with other drugs that teens commonly use, including nicotine and alcohol. Since 1998, the fraction of teens who smoke cigarettes has dropped from 35% to 3% of all teens.
Miech attributes this drop to a rise in anti-nicotine vaping campaigns, like social media posts that say vaping promotes popcorn lung or other vaping-associated lung injuries. As for why there’s been an increase in marijuana vaping but not cannabis, Miech isn’t sure.
“Kids really like the flavors and the danger doesn’t register to them,” Miech said.
Miech said the increase in flavored vape use might warrant “tighter regulation” on which flavors are available to the public. Between sweet, sour and fruity flavored marijuana vapes, the favorite among youth is fruit flavors, like strawberry and mango, Miech said.
A Senate bill was introduced in June that requires the state health department to educate students about the dangers of vape and cannabis.
